North Star Writers Group

In recent days, it has become increasingly clear to me that our political future as a nation, and especially the chances of our governance being anything to the right of Marxist lies along one of two paths – fight or flee. This may sound extreme, but I believe one side has already chosen the former option. From the utter obstinacy of the MoveOn.org and Daily Kos crowd on Iraq, to the Sierra Club on energy, to big-city mayors on illegal immigration, the liberal left has already determined to do whatever it takes to force its policies on us all – facts and truth to the contrary be damned.

Thus, our selection of tack on the conservative side of the aisle is a responsive one. The die has already been cast by the left – the only question is whether we'll rise to the occasion. As with 9/11, this is neither a conflict we sought nor one we particularly relish waging. But if we are to keep whatever still remains of the constitutional republic the Founding Fathers bequeathed us, wage it we must.

One especially stark example is that of illegal immigration and "sanctuary cities," a misleading euphemism if ever there was one. Several big-city mayors have taken it upon themselves to, for all intents and purposes, secede from the union and declare open rebellion against the United States, announcing proudly that they will not enforce federal immigration laws that their oaths of office require them to uphold. The practical effect of this is to turn these cities into separate little countries, with these mayors as their virtual dictators.

The result is that illegal immigrants naturally seek safe haven in these cities and they bring violent crime and other attendant pathologies with them. And not a small number of innocent, law-abiding Americans have been murdered and otherwise violated by these criminals that should never have been here to begin with, but were inexorably drawn by welfare handouts and knowledge they won't be investigated. (Newark, New Jersey, for instance.) There is blood on the hands of many of these liberal mayors and liberal judges who refuse to imprison or even hold without bail such illegal immigrant offenders and their supporters.

The only way real change – securing the border, ensuring the law is enforced as written, and so forth – is going to be effected is to take on these ultra-liberal officials directly. They have shown that nothing, not even the clearest statutory law nor a publicly sworn oath to uphold it is going to get them to do what they should. Only some modicum of force they cannot resist might possibly bring that about and stop their erstwhile "civil disobedience." That could be getting them unelected (a difficult if not impossible task), or it could be something else. I don't know exactly what. But if we don't at least match these treasonous mayors' determination, the situation is going to get much worse.

The same principle applies to a number of other issues. Energy policy, for instance. The U.S. is the only country in the world furiously trying to lock up, put off-limits and otherwise use none of the natural resources with which it has been blessed. There is oil and natural gas aplenty in places like ANWR, the Beaufort Sea and off the Gulf Coast, and no new nuclear power plants or refineries have been built since the 1970s. Yet liberals and the Sierra Club have worked hand-in-glove to absolutely stop cold any attempts at modernizing and stabilizing America's energy infrastructure. And then they have the hypocritical gall to whine about "energy independence," when they are the direct cause of our not enjoying any.

Of course, what these environmental extremists really mean is independence from energy, as well as the major downgrade in living standards that necessarily goes with it. (You can't very well feed as many people as you once did when you're using a big chunk of your food supply for energy instead.) The only way sanity is going to be restored to energy policy, and true independence achieved, is to go toe-to-toe with these militant liberals and defeat them. They have shown their determination to force a neo-Luddite and Malthusian worldview upon us, and we must meet that with our determination to resist it.

The list goes on - reforming our public schools means taking on teachers unions, reducing health care costs means taking on trial lawyers, and so on. There is hardly an issue that doesn't have a liberal lobby of some kind standing foursquare against changing the status quo, especially if in a more conservative direction. And the total insistence on surrender in Iraq by the liberal blog crowd has long since departed from reality, leaving it far behind.

The left has shown that they will stop at nothing, even the despicable tactic of using of death and tragedy as a political weapon – the I-35W bridge collapse, floods, possibly even the Utah coal miners – is just fine by them so long as it helps their cause. Will we respond in kind, or will we meekly go along? Which path shall we take?

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This is Column # DKK075. Request permission to publish here.